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This speech contains an analysis of school personnel absence, that seeks to develop a formula useful for understanding more clearly the nature of absence behavior. Since absence is an important aspect of productivity, it is important to understand better the dynamics of absence. Absence could be conceptualized as contractual relationships within a social exchange framework. Within that framework, collective legitimacy and organizational attachment appear as promising explanatory concepts. The type and the length of absence are seen as indicators of legitimacy, while frequency of absence is seen as an indicator of attachment. The findings are consistent with the proposed sociological formulation and suggest that rules and regulations may confirm rather than initiate patterns of absence behavior. (Author)

A study explored these questions: 1) Are there significant differences in perceived equity (equitable exchange situation of rewards to teachers in return for their contributions) between those who teach in a Type 1 school (with a traditional staffing arrangement) and those in a Type 2 school (with differentiated staffing and more differentiated rewards)? 2) Are these significant differences in perceived equity between those who leave teaching (in less than 5 years) and those who remain (for more than 5)? Subjects (all males) were 26 stayers and 20 leavers from a Type 1 school district, 24 stayers and 35 leavers from a Type 2 district, both demographically similar, contiguous districts in the same town. Questionnaire responses, regarding aspirations in his school system and opportunity provided to reach them, were rated on a Likert type scale to measure perceived equity. Two hypotheses were tested using a two-way factorial analysis of variance. Both were confirmed: The stayers perceived a significantly higher degree of equity than the leavers, and the Type 2 stayers perceived a significantly higher degree of equity than Type 1 stayers. Other findings indicated no significant relationship between perceived equity and these factors: type of institution from which the respondent graduated, length of teaching experience, teaching level, socio economic status, and educational attainment. (Additional findings and research suggestions are included.) (JS)

As school systems grow both vertically and horizontally, they face forces tending both to unify (centripetal) and to disunify (centrifugal). A viable system growth involves a blend of both forces on both vertical and horizontal dimensions. It is often assumed that the disunifying impact of centrifugal forces is of such proportion that the administrative unit must grow in size at a rate faster than that of the system in order to provide adequate centripetal impact. Data compiled for all school districts in the United States from 1951-52 to 1963-64, however, show that the relative size of the administrative component varies inversely with the size of the system. Although evidence from the literature is scanty, general propositions can be tentatively advanced concerning the relationship between system size and personnel absences: (1) Absence is associated with size in a curvilinear relations, increasing and then decreasing; (2) in a small system absence is a function of the total social system, while in a large system it is associated with the characteristics of the subsystem work group; (3) absence varies most in small system; and (4) frequency of absence varies inversely with the degree of compatibility of personal and organizational styles. (HW)

A TYPOLOGY FOR A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO TEACHER-WORK RELATIONSHIPS REGARDS THE SCHOOL AS AN EMPLOYING SYSTEM WITH SETS OF CONTRASTING SYSTEM-WORKER RELATIONSHIPS--(1) FORMAL-PERSONAL OR TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY, (2) DISCRETIONARY-PERSONAL OR PERMISSIVE PERSONALISM, (3) FORMAL-GENERALIZED OR ORGANIZATIONAL FORMALISM, AND (4) DISCRETIONARY-GENERALIZED OR OPEN SOCIETY. THE RELATIONSHIPS ARE DEFINED IN TERMS OF THE DEGREE AND DIRECTION OF AUTHORITY INVOLVED AND THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE BOUNDARY OF THE PARTICULAR SYSTEM IS OPEN OR CLOSED. THE MUTUAL REJECTION OF EACH OTHER'S IDEOLOGIES BY TEACHERS' ORGANIZATIONS AND SCHOOL BOARDS LEADS TO FIRM POLARIZATION OF THE RESPECTIVE GROUPS' POSITIONS. THIS MAKES NEGOTIATIONS ON SPECIFIC ISSUES DIFFICULT AT A TIME WHEN WORKERS ARE DEMANDING AN INCREASINGLY HIGHER RETURN IN THE EXCHANGE PROCESS OF RIGHTS AND DUTIES SERVING SYSTEM GOALS AND INDIVIDUAL NEEDS. IT IS THEORIZED THAT A SATISFACTORY SOLUTION OF TEACHER-WORK RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS WILL RESULT WHEN THE SCHOOL BOARD AND THE TEACHERS' ORGANIZATION ARE VIEWED AS SEPARATE SYSTEMS INTERACTING THROUGH EXCHANGE UNITS IN A NEGOTIATIONS SUBSYSTEM. THIS PAPER WAS PRESENTED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION (NEW YORK CITY, FEBRUARY 17, 1967). (JK)

Objective: Stillbirth is a potentially preventable complication of pregnancy. Identifying women at risk can guide decisions on closer surveillance or timing of birth to prevent fetal death.Prognostic models have been developed to predict the risk of stillbirth, but none have yet been externally validated. We externally validated published prediction models for stillbirth using individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis to assess their predictive performance. Methods: We searched Medline, EMBASE, DH-DATA and AMED databases from inception to December 2020 to identify stillbirth prediction models. We included studies that developed or updated prediction models for stillbirth for use at any time during pregnancy. IPD from cohorts within the International Prediction of Pregnancy Complication (IPPIC) Network were used to externally validate the identified prediction models whose individual variables were available in the IPD. We assessed the risk of bias of the models and IPD using PROBAST, and reported discriminative performance using the C-statistic, and calibration performance using calibration plots, calibration slopeand calibration-in-the-large. We estimated performance measures separately in each study, and then summarised across studies using random-effects meta-analysis. Clinical utility was assessed using net benefit. Results: We identified 17 studies reporting the development of 40 prognostic models for stillbirth. None of the models were previously externally validated, and only a fifth (20%, 8/40) reported the full model equation. We were able to validate three of these models using the IPD from 19 cohort studies (491,201 pregnant women) within the IPPIC Network database. Based on evaluating their development studies, all three models had an overall high risk of bias according to PROBAST. In our IPD meta-analysis, the models had summary C-statistics ranging from 0.53 to 0.65; summary calibration slopes of 0.40to 0.88, and generally with observed risks predictions that were too extreme compared to observed risks; and little to no clinical utility as assessed by net benefit. However, there remained uncertainty in performance for some models due to small available sample sizes. Conclusion: The three validated models generally showed poor and uncertain predictive performancein new data, with limited evidence to support their clinical application. Findings suggest methodological shortcomings in their development including overfitting of models. Further research is needed to further validate these and other models, identify stronger prognostic factors, and to develop more robust prediction models